Pay for Peace scores big upset in Plate Trial Stakes
ETOBICOKE, Ontario – Pay for Peace ($41.90) collared the favored Federal Law just inside the sixteenth pole to win Saturday’s $125,000 Plate Trial Stakes at Woodbine, one of the final major local preps for the $1 million Queen’s Plate on June 29.
Federal Law appeared to miss the break but still wound up on the lead heading into the first turn, while Pay for Peace settled along the rail in the second flight through an opening quarter in 24.17 seconds. Federal Law continued to dictate the pace on his own through the backstretch and was looking to fend off all challengers in the stretch, but Pay for Peace emerged in the late going and pulled off the upset by 1 3/4 lengths, finishing in 1:51.63 for 1 1/8 miles on Tapeta.
“I had a dream trip,” said winning jockey Luis Contreras. “This horse likes to run all day. I think his style is to be in the long races. He had a good break, and I saw [Federal Law] missed the break a little bit, and he rushed to the lead. I think that helped a little.”
It was Pay for Peace’s first stakes win. He had run fourth in the Kingarvie in his stakes debut as a 2-year-old last December.
“I’m absolutely delighted,” trainer Rachel Halden said. “He’s taken a little while to come back around this year for us. He did run a very good race in his last start against older horses. Looking at this race, it didn’t look like it was coming up a huge field. He wants a route of ground, and he’s a big galloper, and everything just worked out well for him today.”
While the next step could be the Queen’s Plate, Halden said the connections were thinking of other options heading into the Plate Trial.
“We weren’t thinking about it,” she said. “I think this horse will step up on the turf, and we’ve been thinking [about the] Breeders’ [Stakes]. He did jump up and run a big race today. We’ll definitely be thinking about it now, and we’ll see how he comes out of it and have a discussion with his owners.”
